Monday, May 6, 2013

*Greetings.
*The NBA and NHL playoffs are not college football season or March Madness, but they sure are a lot of fun. The intensity grows with every round and you can find a good game on the court or the ice(most times multiple contests) on the tube every night. The crowds are electric, the intensity by the players is full-throttle, and the "do or die" games is what sports is all about.
*Saturday night we got to see a game seven in the NBA with the Bulls and Nets. The Nets were at home, the Bulls were "RoseHinrichDengless" and Jay-Z's own Brooklyn Nets are much better on paper. Chicago won. That's good stuff. The Bulls have their work cutout for them in the next round, however. The Heat are waiting.
*As great as the NBA playoffs are, the NHL postseason is superb. Even though you can say this for any sport, it holds especially true in hockey-One mess up by one player in one-split second can cost you a game and/or a series.
*Husker fans can "live in the past" for yet another day. Finally, Tommie Frazier is headed to the College Football Hall Of Fame. Tommie's career was magnified by one run"Eddie George stole my Heisman"
*TV thoughts-
Over a game of golf, another TV sports reporter/anchor were chatting it up about the biz. I mentioned to him that I thought it was incredible how someone in this business can go without having/using a Twitter account. One night during the Boston Marathon coverage, we saw the cable news networks get owned by the website. Absolutely owned. Twitter is a great way of getting/sharing information from and to your viewers. It is hard, more than viewers would estimate, how hard it is to tweet while you're at the scene of a fire or any news story. You're getting video, information, etc. TV stations always pride themselves on being the FIRST to report a story whether it be on-air or online. That's where Twitter can go wrong..reporters are want to be the first to get it out without getting their facts straight. The internet is a dangerous game.
*Recently, as most of my Iowans have dealt with, Fargo was preparing for a flood. Luckily, it didn't get as bad as they thought it would. It is fun watching TV stations slug it out on the coverage of such a big event. A, B, and C blocks are all about that one event...aka the beginning of the news until after the weather. Live shots, multiple paks, it's what the TV business is all about.
*A great story idea for a news reporter would be the overhype of these events. Does a TV station or the news over blow an event that has not arrived. For example, in Iowa where the state is on the borderline of the freezing mark, meteorologists have a hard time predicting if a winter storm will be all snow or ice/snow or rain/ice/snow..failing to predict snow fall. But all the time, we see a TV say something is arriving...a flood or a storm..and then it never comes. It's not the TV station's fault..but they're the one relaying the message. How much money/time is lost preparing for these events that never actually happen.
*Speaking of storms, "Tornado Season" is finally here. "It's the Wonder of Nature Baby!!" 1:49-1:55
*Next blog I will present the fourth best hoops movie of all time.